Ex-President Jammeh asked for $10M to award contract

Njogu
Bah reveals to Janneh CommissionDr.
Njogu Bah, former secretary general, head of the civil service, yesterday told
the Janneh Commission that Ex-President Jammeh asked for $10,000,000 to award a
contract to MGI Telecom Company.

He
reappeared in connection to Gamtel gateway contracts, and continuing with his
testimony, Counsel Bensouda asked him to confirm his signature on some of the
payments from the Gamtel gateway account in Central Bank.

On
signing an agreement for the management of the gateway, he confirmed that he
signed the contract between Tell and Gamtel for the management of the
international gateway. He added that they had a meeting with Ali Charara and
the former president instructed him to sign the contract, further stating that
he could not remember who was managing the gateway prior to Tell Company.

According
to him, during their meeting, Mr. Charara was together with a man who was based
in France; adding that the time Spectrum was signing the contract, he was then
a junior officer at the office of the former president.

On
how Mr. Charara met the former president, he said Mr. Muhammed Bazzi introduced
him to the former president and the former president told him that the contract
was a done deal; adding that he did not receive incentive for signing the
contract. He also testified that there was at some point a problem between the
former president and Mr. Charara.

According
to him, the former president was presented with a brand new Range Rover by Mr.
Charara when Tell Company was operating, noting that in 2013 they had Permanent
Secretaries retreat at Kanilai and he was approached by the managing director
of Gamtel, Bakary Sanyang, who informed him that there were people (MGI) that
expressed interest for managing the Gamtel gateway but he responded to him that
the gateway was already contracted to Tell.

However, Sanyang told him he had to look at
the best company but he (Bah) told him to write to the former president for
request, which he did before they might think that he was not interested and
was blocking them. The former president was interested in what they could
offer, he said.

The
former secretary general revealed that soon after he was relieved of his
duties, he heard that a contract was
signed with MGI and the said contract was signed by the former managing director of Gamtel in Switzerland; adding
that it was alleged that Saul Badjie and Mr. Sanyang benefited from this
contract.

According
to the former civil service boss, the former president instructed him to ask
MGI whether they could offer to him (Jammeh) the sum of $10,000,000 when MGI
intended to offer $2,000,000 which the former president was reluctant to
accept. He said the $10,000,000 was not for Gamcel.

On
the purchase of pickups by the former president, he confirmed that the former
head of state bought 20 of them to the tune of $25,000,000 from the United
States; further stating that he did not witness the delivery of the cars. He
said the scholarships awarded to American ladies to pursue university courses
were those who participated in the Miss Black Beauty Pageant in The Gambia.

He
said they had series of applications from Gambian students for sponsorship but
the former president opted to sponsor those American girls instead. He said his
signature on directives for the disbursement of funds from the Gamtel gateway
account was because he had no choice but to comply.

Documents authorised by the witness for the
disbursement of funds from the said account at the central bank were admitted
in evidence.

Alagie
Abdoulie Kebbeh, a telecom engineer and consultant who was also a member of the
taskforce appointed by the former president on Gamtel/Gamcel, yesterday
appeared before the Janneh Commission in connection to Gamtel gateway
contracts.

Testifying
before the commission, he said prior to becoming a consultant, he worked in the
public service from 1968-1995; adding that he was appointed to be a member of
the taskforce to prepare a report on the findings of Gamtel gateway and Bakary
Njie was the chairman of the said taskforce.

He
told the commission that he had the report on the taskforce covering 2006-2016
with regard to the management of the international gateway; adding that during
the course of their investigations, they invited the chairman of MGI and they
also dealt with financial matters relating to the office of the former
president which was also compiled in the report.

The
ICT final report of 2017 prepared by the taskforce was tendered and admitted as
exhibit. When asked by counsel to explain from their report the sum of $449,891,688
paid from the proceeds of Gamtel International Gateway in 2006, out of which
Gamtel received only the sum of $77,859.40, he said they knew all this during
their findings through MGI report and Central Bank records as well.

According
to him, MGI was not paying tax at the time, despite the sum of $66,340,347 they
generated as their net profits as indicated in their report, noting that the
revenue they generated in 2006 amounted to $144,000,000.

Mr.
Kebbeh disclosed that MGI was also involved in projects which were also
captured in their report and outlined the various projects to the commission
such as e-government, fraud protection, roaming, Gamtel Billing System and
Intelligence Management Centre among others. He said the taskforce report also
made analyses of the MGI activities as well as their financial transactions.

According
to the telecom engineer, the revenue from the gateway was just applied but
there was no record to that effect, noting that only the former MD, Bakary
Njie, could be in a better position to explain.

The
witness claimed that MGI was directly dealing with the former president and
neither the management of Gamtel/Gamcel knew anything about MGI and both
companies did not have the record of MGI contract agreement. He disclosed that
the cost of gateway switches of the first project was over $3,000,000.

According
to him, Gamtel/Gamcel did not have documentation on the switches; adding that
they did not know how the billing platform was procured and they spent over
$11,000,000 for the installation of the billing system and no tender process
was found.

The
consultant, however, told the commission that he could not tell how much money
from the gateway was generated. He said MGI was the only company involved in
the installations of some of their gargets and the local GSM operators were
losing revenue; adding the management and staff of Gamtel/ Gamcel were not even
allowed to have access to the switches.

Mr.
Kebbeh further told the commission that while executing their duties, they requested
MGI to furnish them with a breakdown of expenses and it was discovered that
from June, 2014, to December, 2016, MGI deducted the sum of $24 million which
was on a monthly payment of $800,000 which they claimed was for services.

According
to him, there were two MGIs and the first one which was also in charge with the
management of Gamtel gateway was incorporated in Switzerland, while the one
registered in The Gambia, Multimedia Gateway Incorporation (MGI), was in charge
of the maintenance of the Gamtel Gateway.

He
further revealed that there was a contract between Gamtel and the National
Assembly but Gamtel subcontracted the multimedia company for the installations
of gargets at the National Assembly.

Documents
relating to the contracts and gateway traffic were tendered and admitted as
exhibits.

Earlier,
Cherno Camara, senior manager, Commercial at Gamtel, testified in relation to
Gamtel Gateway contracts. He said he served in the said portfolio for 2 years
and was also the manager settlement.

According
to him, their department was responsible for the management of the
international gateway before contracted to foreign companies or operators. Upon
perusal of documents shown to him by the counsel, he acknowledged that most of
the documents were from their department.

On
how they accessed traffic, he said they were given access to a billing platform
by Global Voice so as to ascertain as to how much Gamtel was generating from
the gateway, stating that they were able to verify information given to them.

On
the operation of System 1, he said their responsibility was to provide daily
statistic to the manager, further stating that they did not calculate how much
Gamtel should be paid neither did they have access as to how much Gamtel should
be paid.

However,
he said when Tell was contracted with the management of the gateway, they had
access to the billing platform, but proceeds received were transferred to the
Central Bank but now Gamtel has taken over the management of the gateway.